Fat Ten-Er #10

When I took this picture I was thinking, “what exists in my house that I consider a perfect 10? My wife, sure, but that wouldn’t work… My Roku (which is better than my AppleTV, by the way)? Yeah, but I didn’t want to unplug it. Then I remembered the LEGO Farnsworth House from the bedroom.

Yup, that’ll do. Designed by Mies van der Rohe and built in Plano, Illinois, the Farnsworth House is the “perfect 10” example of mid-century modern design. This house is the perfect “juxtaposition of the sleek, streamline design of Modern structure with the organic environment of the surrounding nature.” (So says the site I just linked.)

Am I saying that the Fat Ten-Er #10 is perfect in every way? No. I’m simply using the number ten in an overwrought CTMQ way. That’s how I do.

But this certainly IS a very good beer. And It’s fairly unique too – a saison in every way, except for a robust addition of Nelson Sauvin hops. You know, the very hop that makes NEBCO’s Coriolis the sought-after beaut that she is, as well as Beer’d’s Hobbit Juice DIPA – two of the best beers brewed in Connecticut, if not New England.

NEBCO Says:

A saison with Nelson Sauvin hops.

Yeah, we know. I just said that. Sheesh.

As I write this, I noticed that NEBCO will be re-doing Fat Ten-Er #2. While we’re talking about pefect 10’s, that beer was absolutely a perfect 10. It was a Citra/Galaxy DIPA and it was crafted with that deft DIPA hand that NEBCO has come to be known for. The original intent of this Fat Ten series was pretty much just to mess about with new things in small batches.

I’m not sure they ever thought they’d be re-brewing anything from the series, but here we are… And I love it. The # 2 was as good as any of NEBCO’s fanboy faves – Fuzzy Baby Ducks, Gandhi, on down the line. (And to be clear, they aren’t stopping at ten! No, 11 is on the way as I write this as well.)

Here’s a bit about this beer you may not know. It was brewed by our hero Matt (the Fat Ten-Er series rotates around the three brewers) as a favor (of sorts) for a good friend of his. His friend was getting married, asked Matt for a beer, he likes saisons, Matt made this beer.

Sigh.

I’m friends with Matt and all, but not like that. My level of friendship involves him telling me personal stories like that when no one else is around. I mean, I have his cell number, but I’m not using it to ask him to use the brewery he partly owns to make ME a special beer. Whomever you are, just-married-friend, you are awesome and I hope your new bride understands that.

Are there other saisons dosed with Nelson out there? Yeah, probably. Are there other breweries who know how to handle Nelson as well as NEBCO? Yeah, a handful. But are there others with the skills and know-how to use such an aggressively fruity and winey hop in a yeasty and dry saison? I’m not so sure.

Like ol’ Mies van der Rohe. An innovator, doing something that looks so simple to the untrained eye, but really wasn’t. Many, many architects were messing about with steel and glass, but only a handful pulled it off so perfectly. (Then Philip Johnson had to blow it up with his Glass House, as if to say, “ok, here’s the ultimate. Now let’s move on.”)

Wow, I just realized that in my review of the Fat Ten-Er # 9 I compared NEBCO to The Beatles. Now I’m comparing them to one of the kings of modern design.

Christ, am I just an annoying fanboy* now too?

*Oh, I KNOW I’m a NEBCO fanboy. I just don’t want to be annoying about it.